THE CHRONICLE is supporting West Middlesex Hospital's bid to raise £3,500 for a very special chair, which could speed the recovery of scores of patients.

About two dozen staff at the hospital took part in a 'Run to the Beat' half marathon in September to raise money for the cause.

The cash is needed to buy a rehabilitation chair for the intensive care unit, which would provide a major boost for patients recovering from surgery.

The 'Lungbusters' team are already more than half way towards their target and the Chronicle is this week urging readers to give generously and help them over the finishing line.

Lee Curtis, West Mid's physiotherapy team leader in critical care, who began the fundraising campaign, said: "This chair would be an aid to so many people. It would help anyone who has respiratory failure, which can often be caused by innocuous things, such as someone having an insect bite which leaves them with septicaemia. If they're sedated, on a ventilator, this will help get them up to a seated position."

Former patient Heidi Sainsbury, who went through the difficult rehabilitation process after multiple operations, is only too aware of the difference the chair could make.

"I recently had abdominal surgery, which I had after complications from previous surgery. I was here for five days and certainly after surgery it would have been much more comfortable to have used a rehab chair," she said.

Lydia Charles, whose husband William had a small knee operation and got a pulmonary embolism, which left him in a critical condition, also threw her support behind the campaign.

She said: "William was lying flat and sedated for a month. He couldn't lift a single muscle. When he went to an upright, straight-backed chair straight away it made him feel dizzy and he couldn't cope with sitting up straight away. It took him a week to get him upright. It would be have been better if he'd been brought up slowly which is what this new rehab chair would offer."